The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between November 1, 2014, and October 31, 2015 (see FAQ for exceptions), are automatically nominated for the 2015 Kirkus Prize, and the winners will be selected on October 15, 2015, by an esteemed panel composed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

Like its hero, this novel hovers between two styles—pulp fiction and literary seriousness—which, taken together, render the genre formulas leaden.
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"Like its hero, this novel hovers between two styles—pulp fiction and literary seriousness—which, taken together, render the genre formulas leaden."

A Mexican drug lord heads into a final showdown with the obsessed American Drug Enforcement Administration agent who has been dogging him for years in this vast and ambitious thriller from Winslow (The Kings of Cool, 2012, etc.).Read full book review >

The stakes seem so low throughout this installment, filled with dead ends and dropped stitches, that you can't help wondering if Woods has set his word processor to auto-type.
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"The stakes seem so low throughout this installment, filled with dead ends and dropped stitches, that you can't help wondering if Woods has set his word processor to auto-type."

In between rounds of pie-in-the-sky international intrigue, Stone Barrington takes time out to help a San Antonio brewer find a new New York distributor—and inherits all the brewer's enemies.
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The daring duo of Sherlock and Savich (Power Play, 2014, etc.) once again takes on assorted criminals in this wide-ranging thriller. Though Savich's thin case is a runner-up to Sherlock's high-profile investigation, it's the more interesting of the two.Read full book review >

"The daring duo of Sherlock and Savich (Power Play, 2014, etc.) once again takes on assorted criminals in this wide-ranging thriller. Though Savich's thin case is a runner-up to Sherlock's high-profile investigation, it's the more interesting of the two."

Unlike the previous installment (The Fifth Assassin, 2013), this one doesn't provide much in the way of exposition but instead throws you unceremoniously into the deep end. Fans will survive, but unwary newcomers had better watch their backs.Read full book review >

"Unlike the previous installment (The Fifth Assassin, 2013), this one doesn't provide much in the way of exposition but instead throws you unceremoniously into the deep end. Fans will survive, but unwary newcomers had better watch their backs."

This third outing for the storied Culper Ring, sworn to protect the U.S. presidency, shows them doing what they do most: sniffing out conspiracies, falling for deceptions, and perpetuating that grandest of all American political institutions, the clueless double take.
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Although Matthews' technique of using food as a running theme (complete with recipes) doesn't always work, this is another must-read for fans of the spy genre.
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"Although Matthews' technique of using food as a running theme (complete with recipes) doesn't always work, this is another must-read for fans of the spy genre."

A sexy Russian spy trained in the fine art of seduction and recruited as an American double agent helps set up a double-cross that could pit Russia against Iran in this blockbuster by former CIA operative Matthews.
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No one would accuse V. I. Warshawski of backing down from a fight, but there are a few she’d be happy to avoid. High on that list is tangling with Chicago political bosses. Yet that’s precisely what she ends up doing when she responds to Frank Guzzo’s plea for help in Brush Back, the latest thriller from bestselling author Sara Paretsky. For six stormy weeks back in high school, V.I. thought she was in love with Frank. He broke up with her, she went off to college, he started driving trucks for Bagby Haulage. She forgot about him until the day his mother was convicted of bludgeoning his kid sister, Annie, to death. Stella Guzzo was an angry, uncooperative prisoner and did a full 25 years for her daughter’s murder. Newly released from prison, Stella is looking for exoneration, so Frank asks V.I. for help. “Paretsky, who plots more conscientiously than anyone else in the field, digs deep, then deeper, into past and present until all is revealed,” our reviewer writes.
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